In my prior U.S. Pat. No. 3,895,844, I describe an improved roller skate wheel. In my prior U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,722,429 and 2,822,182 there are shown bearing mountings for roller skate trucks. Hanger plates for roller skate shoe plates are known generally in the art and usually take the form of separate hangers for the front and rear wheel trucks. Primarily, these hanger plates offer resilience and allegedly serve to absorb shocks and the like. An example of such hanger plate is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,774,924. Still some other hanger plate designs serve to partially support the wheel truck, the remaining portion of the wheel truck being secured to the roller skate shoe plate. An example of this latter construction is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 865,441.
Despite the foregoing known art, there is still room for improvement in roller skate hanger plate and wheel truck construction. More particularly, a desirable feature would be some means for enabling the wheel trucks to be readily removed and replaced by other wheel trucks using the same shoe plate so that a skater could readily convert his or her roller skates to different types of rollers and supports for the rollers without having to use a different shoe plate. In addition, it is desirable for figure skating and certain other skating activities to construct roller skates to be as light as possible and yet strong enough to withstand the severe strains to which they are subject, particularly in dancing and sports.
Still another desirable feature would be to provide simple yet reliable means for adjusting the height of each roller skate; that is, the distance between the shoe plate and the wheel trucks. By providing for individual adjustment, a pair of skates can be custom adapted to a particular skater wherein there may be a problem with balance as a consequence of one of the skater's legs being shorter than the other.